Emotional scars need healing

STOCKTON - Many of the 397 people who survived shootings in Stockton in 2012 have been blinded, lost limbs and vital organs, been paralyzed and confined to a bed or wheelchair.

Joe Goldeen

STOCKTON - Many of the 397 people who survived shootings in Stockton in 2012 have been blinded, lost limbs and vital organs, been paralyzed and confined to a bed or wheelchair.

Then there are the emotional scars, which run very deep.

But there are plans to do more to help Stockton's survivors cope.

Netta Nagle knows firsthand how vital emotional support is. Nagle was shot once in the face and twice in the right leg while changing a flat tire late on July 14. Sight and hearing impairments, the loss of many of her top teeth, and a speech impediment are a result.

Still, Nagle hopes to complete high school this spring - Stockton Unified has provided her with a home-school teacher since the beginning of her senior year. She wants to go on to college to study forensics or, maybe, architecture.

But first, she said, she has to get new teeth and feel comfortable again going out into the community.

Franklin High Principal Reyes Gauna, who got to know Netta Nagle during summer school, described her as a "wonderful young lady" who was on track to finish school this spring. "My goal and my dream is for her to come back and at the end of the year walk at graduation. She is one of our students. Things happen in life."

While she gets support from her mom and two close friends, what's really helped has been communicating with another shooting victim, a girl about her age from Oakland.

Kyndra Simmons, who manages the Caught in the Crossfire Program for Oakland's Youth Alive! organization, said the approach to dealing with survivors of violence is different than speaking with families of homicide victims.

"When somebody has died, you can't tell their family that everything will be OK. That part is really hard," Simmons said. "When someone has been shot, families are really hurting, but there is a possibility that things are going to be OK. I'm much better talking to a family about how we can move forward to help families understand the severity of the injuries and what survival will look like."

There are programs for victims in San Joaquin County. The Victim-Witness Program is well-established, but its focus is on the victims' immediate needs and helping them navigate the criminal justice system. The nonprofit support group Victims of Violent Crimes of San Joaquin focuses primarily on the needs of homicide victims' families and is not prepared to meet the emotional support needs of shooting survivors, especially young people, founder Joyce Tuhn admits.

That's one reason that, on Friday, when the city of Stockton released its Marshall Plan for dealing with violence, one section dealt with implementing a program similar to Caught in the Crossfire. The plan hopes to deploy intervention specialists to meet shooting victims and their families in the hospital and stay with them as a support system, typically for six months.

"Some need to be relocated," Simmons said. "Once they are discharged, we start working on a plan to keep them safe - anything they can think of - enrolling them at school, getting them a job. We have a mental health clinician on staff. In some cases we offer financial support."

Michele Nagle, Netta Nagle's mom, has indicated she wants to get involved. "I want to start a support group for victims of violent crimes, essentially the innocent bystanders like my daughter," she said, telling people to contact her on her Facebook account at Michele Nagle-Johnson.